


Kingdom Hearts 3.2: The Breaking Light

by Ariasune, OperaGoose



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Asexual Riku, Canon-Typical Violence, First Kiss, M/M, Minor Axel/Roxas (Kingdom Hearts), Minor Eraqus/Xehanort (Kingdom Hearts), Minor Naminé/Xion (Kingdom Hearts), One-sided Kairi/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Pansexual Sora, Self-Discovery, Timeline Shenanigans, Trans Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-19 08:46:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29747946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ariasune/pseuds/Ariasune, https://archiveofourown.org/users/OperaGoose/pseuds/OperaGoose
Summary: After the events of Kingdom Hearts 3, Riku and Kairi set out to find Sora and bring him home, even as Sora and his Heartbroken fight them at every turn.Following Sora to new worlds- dark, light and eclipsed -Riku learns about the burden of the χ-Blade, the fall of Scala ad Caelum, and the sometimes fragile nature of the Heart.♡ Updates Mondays ♡
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Kudos: 12
Collections: Soriku Big Bang 2020





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Artwork credit to [Imperial](https://imminent-danger-came.tumblr.com) and [Yukiangel51](https://twitter.com/yukiangel51)! Our fantastic team members for the SRBB2020

[](https://imminent-danger-came.tumblr.com)

* * *

* * *

She falls through the sky. She wakes in the sea.

The dark presses like an ocean on her chest. Her ribs like a vice on the beat of her heart. The steady ache of it. His hands are warm, rough but so unsteady, so unsure. She sinks in water, she drowns in not exactly light. Something refracted, reflected. Tentative. His hands on her face, cooler now. Shaking, and shivering like the taste of salt.

With a gasp of air, she tastes it on her tongue. With a gasp of water, she hacks and coughs, sand warm under her hands, the wind cold on her cheeks. Kairi’s nails pick through the sand, aching as she coughs up the water, a hand pressing to her chest. 

Dizzy, Kairi sways, her hand swims through the air and catches on something. Someone. Blinking, salt clinging to her lashes, she questions: “Sora?” 

There’s a muddled vision before her, something so dark it flashes like a burn. And then her vision clears. Silver hair, and lapis eyes; she's clinging to Riku’s arm and shoulder, sea water running down her skin. “Riku?” Kairi mumbles, eyebrows furrowing. 

The ocean laps softly at the sand, and it’s not dark, the night’s air is gentle on her skin. She’s home, these are her islands, _their_ islands but—

“Where’s Sora?” her voice is sore, breathless, as she looks around. Eyes half-glazed, clutching at Riku to even sit up. “He was… he was right here…” Kairi’s focus throbs, exhausted, weighted down. She’s washed ashore, but she has done so alone, and it’s the only thought she can hold onto.

Riku's expression is serious, but calm. He's come a long way from being the spitfire boy who was so angry at everything, and took out everything in his path in his journey to get what he wants. Supporting Kairi's exhausted form, Riku just shakes his head. "He couldn't return with you," he answers, his voice steady. The idea burned in his torso, trapped somewhere between his heart and his gut. But there would be time to deal with that. Later.

 _He couldn't return with you_. Five words that could have meant all manner of things. Riku's steady voice, steady arms. For a wild, shard of a moment, Kairi thought that maybe it just meant Sora would find a different way home—

And then it hit her, as she stumbled to her feet, shoes catching in the sand. It hit her as hard as a blow. 

_Sora couldn't return with her_ was two words too many. Sora couldn't return. He couldn't return home.

Kairi's voice cracked, "no... no. We have to help him— he's out there, alone—" Her balance faltered. A certainty that struck her, that had struck her so surely, but the weight in her chest was only her own. Her eyes burned and glittered. "He has to be out there..."

She didn't believe that. Sora couldn't return, because—

Kairi shook her head and the world spun. 

"Come on. Let's get you dry and get you some fresh water."

"Y-yeah," Riku braced Kairi against him, as they took a step up the shoreline. 

He helped her up the water line, towards the shade, and the freshwater pool. She'd need water slowly; she'd hurt if he flooded her system straight away. There were probably towels in the old shack. 

"Sora's never alone," Riku said quietly. He tapped the centre of his chest to demonstrate what he meant. 

Not only them... but all the friends they'd made. Mermaids, and bears, to warriors and scientists. Sora's heart connected with everyone he came across. He was just _like that_.

Kairi bit her lip, eyes dropping down to the sand at their feet. They made their way slowly to the pool's edge, but she could feel her strength already beginning to trickle back. Exhaustion of the heart more than of body. Gingerly, Kairi knelt by the pool, one hand still holding onto Riku's shoulder.

She took a deep breath, and pressed a hand against her chest. The heavy feeling again. "Riku—" she prompted, voice breaking, "I feel like I've lost—" Her eyes were getting foggy with tears again, both trying to tell Riku, and trying not to think about it. "I think maybe he's lost, Riku... what happened?"

“You were lost. And Sora needed to find you.” Riku carefully sat her down by the pool, near the Secret Place. “He knew the consequences. His heart and his mind were made up.”

Half a coconut shell, filled with a few mouthfuls of water. “Sip slowly.” 

If it had been anyone else, Kairi would have demanded to know how they could have let Sora do that. If it weren't Sora. If it weren't Riku. Wiping her eyes on the back of her hand, she nodded and sipped at the shell cautiously. It was hard not to just drink it all, her body making itself known in aches, and thirst, and the growl in her stomach.

Stripping his jacket off and holding it out towards her, Riku turned away so she could change. Flushing and taking the jacket in her hands, Kairi peeled out of her soaked clothes. Awkwardly, she wrapped herself up in Riku's jacket, leaving her vestments in a sodden little pile, before clearing her throat, "I'm... um. Decent."

He turned back once she gave word, and sunk on the ground to sit next to her in a fluid movement. Then Riku took a deep breath, trying to find the right words. “The power of waking... you’re not supposed to use it to move between heart to heart. I can still feel him, but it’s distant.”

Sora wasn't gone, not entirely. Kairi nodded, wrapping her arms around herself. This time, maybe Riku had been holding him, even from so far away, even as Sora held onto her.

"...I won't let go of him either," she said, rubbing her shoulders to warm them. Kairi was still looking down at the pool of water. It was usually so clear that you could see right through it, but at night, she wasn't sure how to reach the bottom. "But if you're right, we won't be able to go find him the same way," Kairi said quietly, "or we might just lose you too. Like Aqua."

Her fingers tightened slightly. 

"If we work together, all of us, then... we'll find him, won't we?" She looked at Riku directly, mouth set in a fierce, unsure line.

“Sora didn’t... go the same way you did," Riku said obliquely, dodging the details, "it makes sense finding him will be different. But you know what he’d say if he was here? His friends are his power. We’ll work together. We’ll find him.”

Kairi could feel herself go quiet, but couldn't seem to help it. The way Riku carefully paused and then pressed on...

"I remember," her hands knotted in the fabric of Riku's jacket. She didn't reach to touch her back with one hand, despite the sudden cool chill that ran down her spine. "You'll need to fill me in about how it all went down afterwards. And we better call our friends."

###  _Press X to Continue?_


	2. Destiny Island

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Kairi returns without Sora, the Guardians of Light reunite to discuss how best to start looking for their wayward friend.

There was something reassuring about uniting— Riku had said it right —their friendships were powerful. The bonds between their hearts were strong. At first, it had been sad, then it had been joyous: reunions, new meetings, new friends, old friends. Kairi sitting alone over the water, the reassuring protective clasp of Aqua's hand on Riku's shoulder, Roxas' steady stream of questions, and the inevitable, impending truth that they would have to journey to the shores of the realm of darkness.

Aqua looked across the flickering campfire to meet Riku's eyes, "And further, too. The dark margin is only just past the boundary between the dark and the light."

Her expression was haunted, still gazing at Riku as though she were looking out at a horizon.

"If he fell into the abyss to rescue Kairi, then you'd be looking through fallen worlds. Worlds taken by the darkness long ago... some of them barely recognizable, some of them struggling to return to the light..." Aqua closed her eyes, recalling a half-forgotten dream, the flash of a nightmare in cold sweat.

"But if they're struggling to get back," Kairi ventured, "then Sora might be there too."

"That was my thinking, only..." Aqua grimaced and opened her eyes to look about the group, her gaze shifting from Terra to Riku to Mickey.

"Only it may be too hazardous," Mickey concluded quietly.

Aqua nodded. "What Sora did, using the power of waking to sink so deep into sleep... reaching him may be like trying to save a drowning person."

Riku nodded to their comments, but his Heart was set. "I've visited sleeping worlds before, I know how to use the Dream Eaters, I can help train anyone who comes with me. I pulled him from deep depths before... It won't be so easy this time, but I know what I'm facing."

"That's just it, Riku," Mickey held a hand up. "Waking a world dreaming of darkness isn't the same as a world that's living a nightmare."

"There's a reason," Aqua said quietly, "that the old masters never went to retrieve worlds that sank too deep."

At this, Kairi jumped to her feet, fists clenched and hair dancing about her face. "But Riku's right!" She protested. "Maybe this time will be harder, but we've always found him before, we can do it again, and— we won't be going alone. We'll be going together." She looked between the group. "If Sora were here, he'd say the same, as long as we're together—"

"And he's not here, because he said he was going to do it alone, without any help. Or planning," Lea pointed out flatly, cutting her off. "And what's all this talk of _we_? Kairi, in case you've forgotten, you're still in training."

“Kairi is Sora’s most important person,” Riku spoke to Lea seriously. Then turned to the rest of the group. “And I’m Sora’s dream eater. We have the best chance of finding him. And when we do... I’ll call for you all.”

"And he's still gone, despite you both—" Lea tried to argue back, but Roxas placed a steadying hand on Lea's arm, shaking his head.

"We have to believe in them," Roxas insisted, and pressed a hand against his chest. Eyes closed. Feeling for a beat, another— "There are things worth believing in, not because they're necessarily true, or real, or even possible, but- but because they're worth believing in. It's what Sora would do." He turned to offer Kairi and Riku a faint, but definite smile. "You two bring him back, okay? We're counting on you."

Quiet, Lea muttered something about how he was _just saying_ , when Ven lightly socked him in the arm. "Yeah, so don't let us down guys," Ven grinned, leaning against Aqua's side.

Mickey had been quiet for some time, surprise crossing the King's face, before he breathed out. A sigh of not quite relief, but acceptance and faith. "In that case, Riku, you two are going to need this..."

###  _Obtained: Kingdom Key D_

Riku felt the weight of the keyblade, adjusting his grip accordingly. It felt familiar, but just slightly misfitting. He swung it around to test it, and then vanished it away again. 

He turned to Kairi. “It’s not going to be easy,” he warned her.

"I promised him I'd keep him safe," Kairi looked at her friend, resolution in her eyes, "it's time I kept my promise."

He nodded with a soft "Hn”. He had his own promises to keep — maybe not to Sora, but to himself. 

###  _Press X to Continue?_

The place was neither cold, nor warm. Forbidding and still, save the mewl of the ocean against dark sand. Across the water, Kairi saw the white disc ahead— the realms of light —and to her back, great arcs and curves of rock. Dark thoughts turned to dark feelings, turned to only dark stone, and left suspended over water and sand.

Was this where she had once called Riku and Sora back from? Kairi almost wanted to draw her keyblade from sheer trepidation, but knew its bright colours and brighter light would be a beacon for heartless.

Instead, she turned each way, looking across one direction to another— "Which way do we go?" Her hand touched at her chest, but again she could feel... nothing, no pull, no tug, no certainty. As if when Sora had let go of her in the depths, something more had too. She had to trust Riku.

She turned to him, and smiled as playfully as she could, despite the deep dig of fear in her chest, and pumped her fist enthusiastically. "I'm following you in here, Master Riku."

Riku was quiet, observing the different pathways between them. Then he closed his eyes, took a deep breath. His head turned instinctively to the West - and his eyes narrowed on a ruined castle. Unmistakable, bent against the cliffs and cornered by the waves, the land all around empty and scraped clear.

He turned in its direction, giving Kairi a teasing grin: “You know Sora always wanted to be a hero. Where else but a castle?”

###  _Press X to Continue?_


	3. Haggard's Kingdom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riku and Kairi use the Kingdom Key D to reach the Realm of Darkness. In hopes of finding some clue to Sora's whereabouts, they come to a World fallen to Darkness.

The castle felt as though it had been further away, and yet its winding, steep road came upon them quickly, like this desolate place pursued them. Spindly, winding sharp and perilous towards the forbidding castle. Up close, it was clearly ruinous, surely no one could possibly still live in such a place, and yet someone was walking down that dark road toward them.

"Excuse me, excuse me," a thin man - a magician maybe, given his hat, but dressed in a patch-sewn blue robe. A nervous energy thrummed in his voice. "Yes, miss, young man, yes, you." His blue eyes seemed tired, if friendly enough, though there was the faint trace of darkness lingering about him. "Are you, by chance, intending to visit King Haggard's castle?"

Riku glanced at Kairi, then back at the man. Eyes narrowing as he studied him, felt out with his heart, and gave a delicate sniff to taste the air. Despite the tired trace of darkness, the man's heart was a quiet thing; guilt and despair pulling at it. But it was an old heart, much older than the man appeared, immortal, cursed, but true. There was regret and sorrow in this heart, but not evil. Someone who had made a great mistake, and carried it with him.

Trust settled in Riku's heart and he replied: “I’m Riku and this is Kairi. We’re looking for someone. Someone lost.”

A sadness flashed in the man's eyes, and when he spoke the nervous energy had faded to something older, tired— "Then you may well find who you search for in those halls, but, I beg of you, I beg of you to turn back and forget them. To forget you ever came to this wretched place." He looked up with a haunted gaze at the castle. "King Haggard has stolen all the light and good in this world, and will never let it go. Not for you, not for me, not for anyone."

That was no doubt how this world had fallen into Darkness, and the warning made the hair on the back of Riku's neck prickle. But if Sora was trapped here, then nothing would deter them.

"We still have to try," Kairi insisted, now feeling even more certain than ever that this might be the place to find their missing friend.

"That road leads only to a lonely place," the man opined, but the energy had come back to his voice. "Well, very well, I see that your minds are made up," he genuflected dramatically, his hat almost fumbling off his head. "I am Schmendrick. The Magician. And I can take you to King Haggard." He rubbed at his nose, resetting his hat. "Though I suppose I am moonlighting as a fool as of late."

Schmendrick seemed... heavy with something. That same guilt and age. Sora would know exactly how to ply it out of him. But Riku was at a loss. Instead, he just followed him as he led the way to the spiring, fragmented castle. 

###  _Press X to Continue?_

As they wandered high through the castle, the walls were gnarled, and dotted with spider-webs, and the stairs chipped away at. The only sign of life was a stray cat, black and white furred with a missing eye and glinting look in the remaining one. However, it vanished down a staircase with a flick of its tail, and was soon followed by an all mighty shaky, and rattling. The walls of the castle rumbling as if it might topple into the sea.

Kairi stumbled, and Schmendrick quickly steadied her, "oh- oh that's..." he trailed off, seemingly ashamed. Waiting for them to find their footing, he gestured for them to keep climbing, "it should be safe now."

They reached a throne room that looked more like a cell, a decrepit throne of stone, somehow managing to look as though it was decaying. And seated in it, a man as ruined as his castle. He stared at them carefully, pausing for some time over Riku's hair, before seemingly dismissing whatever it was that drew his eye.

"This is," Schmendrick managed, "the Lord Riku and Lady Kairi—"

"I have no need of visitors, send them away," King Haggard's voice rotted in his throat.

"But my King," Schmendrick implored, gracefully beginning to lie to the monarch. "They have travelled a long way, from across the great sea. Surely you could not begrudge them rest? It has been so long since—"

"You tire me," his knuckled hand wove through the air, "very well. Let them stay. I care not."

Riku's nerves crawled, though he couldn’t quite place why. Not just Schmendrick's warnings and shame, but Haggard's abject apathy, like a stone heart rested within him. At least that was a good sign. Riku had trusted people before to his own demise, at least now he could sense it. “We’re searching for someone,” he said, not caring if the king wanted to listen or not.

"You will find no one here," King Haggard shifted in his spot, leaning into the side of his throne like a cliff collapsing into the sea. "My court is a small one. I keep a cook, a magician. I have had a large court once, filled with the pleasures it brings: hunts and laughter, great feasts and dances. But they brought me no joy, and they did not make me happy."

The King's gaze shifted to the window, drifting to the distance. "I cannot stand to have anything near me that does not make me happy." His gaze finally slid back over them. "Leave me. I wish to be alone."

Determined, Riku stepped forward. “Have you had no other visitors recently who displeased you?”

King Haggard had once more been gazing out of the window, Schmendrick doing silent gesticulations at Riku in warning, and when Riku interrupted the King's attention, this time he rose, face twisting slightly. "Did you not hear me? I said be gone." 

Riku raised his chin slightly, defiance brokering his stance into angles. Beside him, he felt Kairi stand straighter, fiercely.

"Schmendrick," King Haggard growled, walking in front of the broken glass pane, and the castle gave another bone-chilling rattle. "Send them away."

Riku's gaze hardened, and he took another step forward, angling between the window and King. “I asked you a question.”

As he thought, King Haggard's head turned towards the window abruptly, and he stood over it. Staring down into a glittering, roiling sea transfixed — and then Haggard looked up again at Riku. "There was one. Perhaps. My bull found a boy whilst wandering, and I have been tricked before," he looked away, hands clasping behind his back and returning to his throne. "But it was nothing in the end. I do not know what became of the waif. Perhaps my bull gored the lad."

“Where can I find this bull?” Riku demanded, his voice still low and intense.

"I keep the Red Bull beneath my castle, with the other Heartless," King Haggard answered honestly enough, and turned his head the other way with dispassion. "I have tolerated your insolence, boy, and I have answered your questions. Take your leave of my kingdom, and be on your way."

Schmendrick caught Riku's sleeve, sharply tugging at it. "You must be hungry! Come, Molly makes a marvellous stew. Course, there's not much to it, thin, but it's good. Warm—" Hurrying them from the throne room, Schmendrick breathed out heavily, "oh that was close, too close." The Magician pressed a hand against his chest, before glancing at Kairi, "is Riku always this- this-" a gesture, "this difficult!"

"Mm-hm," Kairi beamed. Riku pulled a face at her — Schmendrick just pressed his fingers to his temples at her bright expression. "Now how do we get below the Castle?"

"No!" Schmendrick crossed both arms in front of him. "Oh no! I forbid it, you can't go down there! I'm not telling. And- and I don't even know how to get down there, and you shouldn't either. You'd be fools to—"

Without missing a beat, Kairi looped her arm in Schmendrick's and steered him down the stairs. "That's okay, I'm a little peckish," she winked back over her shoulder at Riku, "How about we just go to the kitchens before we leave?"

Riku smiled after her. Then he began heading... well, down seemed a good direction to begin with.

"Mmmm~" a raspy voice purred as a soft weight pressed against Riku's leg. "What do we have here?" The cat wound round Riku's leg, near tripping him on the crumbling staircase. Black and white, clearly a roguish Tom. One foreleg had been replaced by a peg-leg, and an eye covered by a pirate’s eyepatch. "You have the look of the unicorn to you, but- then you are not of this world are you?"

“I have what...?” He paused, and then shook his head. “No. That’s not important.” He looked at the cat, crouched down to his level. “I come from a distant world in search of a lost friend.”

"Harr, and Haggard likes to keep many lost friends," the cat bumped the crown of his head against Riku's knee. "One came before you, from the deep and dark, looking for something else lost," a scratchy chuckle, "so that does not bode well for you."

With that, the cat wound away, descending the stairs with a flick of its tail, apparently dissatisfied. Slow moving with the peg leg, but nimble enough.

He followed after the cat. Taking the tail flick as an invitation to follow. “What happened to the one before?”

"With the rest of them, of course," the cat looked over its shoulder with a golden stare. "They went down the King's Way to the Red Bull's Lair." The cat continued down the stairs, wandering into a damp and dark part of the castle, and oddly, floating on the air came the noisy cackle of laughter. Odd clicks, and inhuman chortles.

"This again..." the cat supposed, amused and irritated all at once.

He summoned his keyblade protectively. “This..?” He prompted.

"A drunkard," the cat scoffed. He glanced at Riku and the blade in his hand, and then, as if to make some sort of point to what he thought of that, the cat sat down and began grooming itself. The laughter had drifted away, the last echoes dissolving in the cavernous halls.

“You’re not going to show me any further?”

The cat transitioned to licking its privates.

“...gooonna take that as a no.” With a sigh, Riku began sneaking down the stairs. They were mottled and eroded in places. It looked less as though the castle was in disrepair, then as if it had simply been carved from the rock by sea and storm. A temporary and exhausted precipice. Cold and dark. But the deeper he got, the warmer it was. Temperature rising to an almost humidity. When he had reached the deepest part of the castle, he gazed about a disused antechamber. A half-hidden clock, shrouded in cobwebs, and over a mantle, a skeleton was splayed.

However, as Riku took in the room, a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. The skeleton. It moved?

It definitely moved. It was definitely watching him, mouth cocked open in a deathly grin.

Well... that wasn’t good. He slowed his step, hoping it would just... watch him. But it followed him through the room, clicking to a stop when Riku did. And stayed that way.

The tension cracked— "Heee... y-y-you look like you've seen a ghost," the skeleton taunted with that same bony cackle. "Not like the last one are you." A yellow glow flashed briefly in its empty eyes. "But there's light in you..." its tone was considering.

Okay.... that wasn’t great. But he wasn’t being attacked. Just yet. “And Dark too.” He said it like a warning.

"Hmmmm," the skeleton's fingers rattled, but the glow was long gone. "True, true, t-true," it gestured at him. "Y-you got any, hah, any food? Anything to drink?" It seemed almost ludicrous; a creature unable to taste, or smell, beckoning at Riku for vittles.

“Uh.” He checked his inventory. “I have... ratatouille?”

"Foreign! Wonderful!" The creature reached out in a noisy rattle of bones. "Hand it over! Quick, quick, hand it over then! Before it spoils! Mmsuh-suh, supper. Come on," its voice turned wheedling, "come ooon, you don't need it, you'll only be alive for however long, but me? I'll be dead forever, so come on, give it to me."

He started to hand it over, but stopped and pulled it back. “What do you mean however long?”

The skeleton whined louder, grasping out, and made a rattling noise of dismay, "oh cruel, cruel, you're cruel." He beckoned, one bony wrist revolving then the other, "I wouldn't know. Yyou living things, with y-your skin and your stomachs, mmmm- maybe you'll die in your bed with grand children all around, maybe you'll fall into the ocean, maybe you'll find the way in the clock and find the red bull's horns, you'll live for awhile and then you'll die forever. Nnnow hand it over!"

He hummed and offered it towards him.

Greedily, the skeleton seized at the food, and began putting it between its jaws. The food fell to the ground, untasted and mashed beyond recognition. "Mmthanks."

Well that was disgusting. “Tell me about the boy. The one with the light who came before.”

"What boy? What light?" The skeleton babbled, too busy miming licking at its fingers and smacking lips it did not have with a click-click-click. "The boy that fought with the Red Bull?" Even when the castle didn't rattle, the skeleton was still did. "It's as Haggard said. There was no boy."

“Then who was ‘the last one’?” Riku asked, getting frustrated.

"Last what?" The skeleton sounded almost panicky. "The last Unicorn? They never existed. Myth they are. Legend."

He sighed in frustration. “Just... point me to the Red Bull’s dungeon,”

"What dungeon? I never heard of the Red Bull."

“Okay. Goodbye then.” Fed up, he turned and continued down the stairs. “What did he say about the red bull’s horns? Something about the clock?” He asked aloud, rubbing at one of his eyebrows with a long, agitated sigh. 

The cat reappeared with a snooty huff, licking its lips, but looking displeased. Clearly the cat had come to inspect the food on the floor and found it definitely unappetising. Wrapping around Riku's legs, and then butting his head against the keyblade possessively, the cat purred: "You speak awfully loud for a thief."

“I’m not a thief,” Riku countered. Then side-eyed the cat. “You were just trying to avoid the skeleton weren’t you?”

"Mmm.... I've been seen through," the cat agreed, and sat down, eyes lidding into a slow, slow steady blink up at Riku. "Then you're not going to free what Haggard has stolen?"

“...does it need to be freed?”

"He has kept all the light in this world to himself, consumed with greed for his own happiness, plunging this world into the realm of darkness." The cat's tail lashed once, twice— "But if you are not a thief, then what are you?"

“...Sneaking.”

"Mmmm," the cat's expression was still lidded, lidding further. "Then you and I are friends," he seemed to decide something in that, rubbing his head against Riku's leg and then the blade.

...they were friends? Is that what Sora did? Just announced they were friends and suddenly he was??

"I would tell you what I know, but then, I am a cat." With that the cat began leading back to the anteroom, trotting past the skeleton with nary a flick of an ear. It pawed at the clock. "Quick, quiet," the cat warned.

He frowned and followed after the cat. Keeping quiet. 

Whilst the cat moved on velvet paws, jumping through the hollow inside of the clock to a pathway hidden by glamour, Riku's bootsteps alerted the skeleton. He looked up with a creak and a crack, "oh no... no... no you don't. Not that one."

The eyes gleamed red. "Haggard! Haggard!" The castle rang with the skeleton's scream, black curling over its bones and sending it up like a marionette to claw at Riku with the jerking movements of a heartless.

“Great.” He held up his keyblade and prepared to attack.

The skeleton tumbled across the ground, barely sewn together with strings of darkness.

Alerted by the shrill screaming from the skeleton, Kairi skidded down the stairs with a shout, "Riku!" The castle began to tremble violently.

Kairi lunged down the stairs, and rolled forward to break the drop. Springing to her feet in a ready position, she immediately went to clobber the skeleton across the jaw.

It went flying, bones holding together and wheeling across the floor with a shriek and a clatter. "Haggard! Haggard!" The creature jerked up into the air.

He threw himself forward, plunging the keyblade towards the Skeleton’s skull. It shrivelled into coils of darkness with a gasping screech, leaving only its coronet behind, spinning on the floor. Jumping back through the front of the clock, the cat laid its ears flat and hissed, "the bull is awake."

Kairi swivelled her keyblade in her hands, before bracing it across her back and nodding at Riku. "Let's go."

Stepping through the clock, a magical fog of green glittered about them, clearing slowly, seeping away to reveal a monstrous Heartless in the shape of a bull. Fire running over its haunches, eyes bright and horns pointed. It snorted in a crackle of sulphur, before lowering its horns in an aggressive stance.

“....great.” He held up his keyblade again, shifting his stance. “Ready, Kairi?”

She braced herself, alongside him. Even in the shadowy lair of the Red Bull, her keyblade was bright and kind in the darkness. "Ready, Riku!"

Lea had taken to calling her style... well, brute force. How had he put it? No style whatsoever, but then, neither has an anvil. And all that brute force went into an immediate lunge straight for the bull's face.

The bull caught her blade in its teeth, and swung hard, throwing her off to the side with a pained shout. Turning, its nostrils flaring, the Red Bull lowered its head towards Riku slowly.

Riku rushed to catch her, levelling his keyblade at the red bull. Well... he was on fire right?

“Water!” he yelled, concentrating his magic towards the bull. 

The Red Bull reared up - something a creature of that size and proportion was ill-advised to do - panicking at the surge of water. Its horns struck the high ceilings of the chamber, trapping the bull until it wrenched free with a crunch of rock.

Several large pieces fell, striking along the Bull's back and flank. It roared, the sound loud and pained, stomping in the close space of the tunnel.

Kairi braced for impact, but it never came. Steadying back on her feet, she once again launched herself forward, this time leaping high to strike at the Bull's exposed back.

Her blow struck true, but she was already dodging past it to the other side, and preparing for her next strike.

Riku waited until the bull reared up again and caught in the ceiling, then rushed forward to stab with the keyblade in the beast’s chest. 

Snarling and snorting in agony, visibly panting, the Red Bull stepped back, back- right into Kairi's waiting blade.

Raising her keyblade back over her head, Kairi struck at the exposed back of the now trapped beast. Struck, the Heartless gave a long low, crumbling into flickers of fire and darkness.

[ ](https://imminent-danger-came.tumblr.com/)

###  _Obtained: Heraldry’s Legacy_

Riku panted, shaking flickers out of his hair, coming to her side. “You okay?” He asked, preparing a cure spell just in case, but Kairi shook her head, red hair brushing close to her cheeks.

"Yeah," Kairi stared down at the dissipating pool of fire. "It... it looked big and imposing, but... it feels like the rest of this place." She looked at Riku. "Falling into ruins."

Ahead of them, there was the ocean, dark, and then brimming, stormy with light. Where the ocean of the dark realm met the kingdom's waters, it sprayed out in jewelled light as— "Riku! Look!" Kairi pointed at the water. "Unicorns! There must be... there must be hundreds of them, of— that man was keeping them all?" The creatures sprang from the tide, moving quickly overshore and over cliff, the castle trembling and collapsing under their trampling hooves.

Kairi had just reached the sand, now a brimming golden colour. Riku stepped between her and the crumbling castle, placing his body between her and the falling rubble. 

...but it wasn’t over. Some sort of twisted creature of darkness was crawling out onto the sand. 

"Are... they're... Riku, they're running from... from, oh- oh god." She stared up, her face paling at the sight of something else rising from the surf. Bright, dark, terrible, clawing at the sand and sea with cloven hooves and a twisted, tangled shape—

A great unicorn, or enough of one to make sense of, almost liquid in shape. Bubbling over with seafoam, and sharp, glass like spires, staggered from the waters. It was large enough to kick the remnants of the castle aside with a loud scream, stamping at it with angry, furious hooves, and then turned on Kairi and Riku. There, splayed under its twisted, sharp glass horn was a mark. A heart, twisted in two.

###  _Encounter: Unmeicorn!_

No wonder the unicorns had fled. Only one remained, quiet, watchful on the shoreline. Slowly, she picked her way forward to face the creature, "thank you," she said simply, as though that were explanation enough. And with that, she lowered her horn towards the creature and braced herself.

###  _Lady Amalthea joined the Party!_

He hoisted it above his head. “What is it? A heartless?”

"Something imprisoned with us," Amalthea shook her head, hooves pawing at the sand slow - steady. 

"Well, whatever it is," Kairi's keyblade was gripped tight in her hand, she steeled herself, "it doesn't look friendly..."

The creature didn't pause, immediately lunging for them with its sharp glass horn, its body crashing and swaying like an ocean. Amalthea, however, reared up, cure glittering around her horn as she cast it over the party. Dodging to the side, the unicorn shied back in the wet sand. Too scared to do much more than falter against the creature's frantic movements.

Riku ran forward, swiping at the dark unicorn’s back legs to try and incapacitate it. The creature gave a wild noise, stamping back and forth with the same panic the Red Bull had shown earlier. Except, where it stamped, earth and water were flung up around each foot. Unable to tell where Riku was - only that pain was cutting at it - the creature jabbed its horn down sharply towards Kairi, and Amalthea.

Kairi tried to counter the strike with her blade, and it glanced off, throwing her into the water with a splash and shout. Amalthea startled, rearing back and stumbling away from the creature in a panic. Regaining some courage, Amalthea wheeled about, and struck at the nearest foot, before darting back again with a shrill whinny.

Riku tried to keep his footing against the stamping feet, dodging the attacks. The feet were moving chaotically, and with Riku canny's movements, and quick-thinking, it was no trouble to dodge. Pointing his keyblade up, he launched himself into a jump, trying to stab at its underside. The creature dissolved around Riku's strike, liquid running down Riku's keyblade— and then surging up and throwing him away from it, deeper into the water, with another loud, ocean-bursting scream.

The creature's strike sent Riku out into the water, casting him down with a loud splash. Kairi's wail of distress drowning out as Riku's world filled with water. Dark, dark without the light of the unicorns trapped inside.

The world went still. Silent. The water welling around Riku.

Riku was sinking, sinking down. In the overwhelming darkness, it felt so familiar. Weightless, floating, in the dark. Maybe he should just sink...

Above the sea, the titan stormed and screamed and its scream echoed down in the water, refracting and fragmenting into the shard of something familiar. Sora's voice, sounding almost torn out of him: **_Leave me alone_ **!

“Sora!” he cried out desperately. Clinging to his keyblade, fighting against the overcurrent, the overwhelm, the water above and below and around him, dark and. He broke the surface, gasping for air, grasping for his connection to Sora.

"Riku!" Kairi had been swimming frantically back and forth in the maelstrom, trying to find where Riku had struck the water. "Riku!" Her voice couldn't carry over the sound of the creature's snorts and shrieks, as it stamped around them— Amalthea's horn glittering green on the shoreline. She saw the keyblade first, and fought to reach him, "Riku! You're okay!"

On the shoreline, Amalthea had lowered herself and with a wild pawing at the sand, finally charged at the distracted creature. But Riku couldn’t let that happen.

He shot towards the corrupted unicorn, trying to come in between Amalthea’s charge and the creature that... was part of Sora in some way, some way that filled Riku with fear and nameless dread. The charge clashed off the keyblade, and Amalthea stamped back, hooves flitting in the sand. She looked confused, but backed away from Riku with shying steps.

This close, however, the creature ducked its head, and struck directly at Riku from behind with the glass spiral of its horn.

Riku was too busy trying to catch breath, to tell them what had happened, and he didn’t have time to block the attack. It plunged into his back and he gasped.

Kairi had been fighting to join them in the low-tide, clawing through the water with shouts, her keyblade still clutched painfully tight in her hand. She had barely made the last few feet when the attack struck. Her hand flew to her mouth, a horrified noise catching in her throat. Her body moved before she could think, lunging forward, she struck across the glass horn as strong as she could. The horn shattered, fragmenting into bright light.

Amalthea, still frantic in the low water, and unsure what to do, dropped her horn to Riku's chest and gently touched it against his center with a more powerful healing magic. 

Above them, the wounded creature stamped and worried at its forehead with piteous, rage-wreaked screeches. Without the horn visible, the mark was clear as day. Not a heartless symbol, nor the mark of a nobody, but a black and white emblem. A heart, broken down the middle and twisted out of shape. Heartbroken.

"...why did you stop me?" Amalthea's gentle voice threaded through the air. Kairi tensed beside Riku, keyblade in hand.

“Stop!” Riku cried out, as Kairi went to attack. He fought to sit up, one hand lifted one hand towards the creature’s face. “Sora. It’s okay. We’re here.”

"What?" Kairi jerked her head towards the creature, and dropped her keyblade with a flash as it vanished.

The creature's head reared back, the noises still bleeding from it as it continued to paw at its shattered horn. Slowly, the glass reformed, crystallizing around the emblem in jagged, sharp pieces— And then its head jerked upwards with a shrill noise. Kingdom Hearts burning in the sky overhead, glowing brightly in gold. The creature stared up at Kingdom Hearts, and then down, a small figure standing a distance away on the surface of the water, the green glitter of the χ-blade directed at it.

Riku turned his head when he felt something else. Something else Sora. He saw the figure and the χ-Blade, and immediately began running towards the water. 

The blade turned. The glass horn splintered, half-formed and the creature collapsed into the water, sparkling like seafoam and onyx, the soft sound of crystal bells hissing and fragmenting. And then a loud crack. The χ-blade twisting strangely in his hands.

But the crack hurt Riku's ears, stained at his heart and he stumbled, tripping into the tide. 

Kingdom Hearts disappeared, like a star breaking, a sun going out and collapsing inwards, and with it the realm of darkness flooded back in, with a rush. And met against the unicorns, their white shapes dotted along the shores and hills, their horns levelled against the dark—

The world turned.

When Riku burst above the surface again, the world was strange and new. Light and azure. And utterly alone, Sora long gone and still lost, not even that dark fear that had caught Riku through the back. He staggered in the waves, numb confusion spreading down each limb, even as he walked slow and heavy to the shoreline.

As Riku came ashore, Kairi was there, reaching out to him. Her face was a mess of worry, and confusion, helping him out of the surf as he had once helped her after she'd returned to the realm of light. Which... She looked around, confused. "We're... we're in the realm of light, Riku." 

In the low water, Amalthea watched quietly. By now, the unicorns had slowly begun to slip away, but she remained again, thoughtful and watchful. Turning her head towards the ruins of the castle, the unicorn paused, her emotions faltering for her friends: "Schmendrick... Molly..." 

But where Haggard had been doomed within his own castle, his own decaying selfishness, Schmendrick the Magician and Molly the Cook had had no trouble running from the falling castle, a fluffy mess of a cat wrapped tight in Molly's arms. Riku smiled faintly when he spotted the cat, tricksy thing. They reached Amalthea with a sigh of relief, tears flooding at their eyes.

"I'm sorry," Schmendrick murmured to the unicorn, "though I know you do not know regret, I have felt it for leading you to Haggard."

Amalthea's head tossed, "I am not like the other unicorns, not anymore. I have known love. And regret. No unicorn ever felt such things, but— I also have known forgiveness, my friend." With that the unicorn dipped her head to Schmendrick. 

She turned to look at Kairi and Riku, her eyes questioning, but her voice sore, "that was your friend," Amalthea determined. "He was trapped with us in the waters."

He nodded seriously. “Our friend or... or part of him.” He frowned slightly. “I’m not sure...” He turned back to Kairi. “I think we need to go see Yen Sid...”

Kairi meanwhile, nodded, still surprised that somehow they had restored this world's light — had that been freeing the unicorns from King Haggard's awful castle... or had it been Sora, with Kingdom Hearts ahead of them. "I think you're right, Riku..."

The cat wriggled loose from the chef, and made a point to wind round Riku's legs. He leaned down to offer his hand to the cat to rub against if it wanted to. “If you ever have need of us, you can reach out to me.”

"And to you the same," Riku promised and the cat rumbled, nudging its head along Riku's hand affectionately. Setting a paw on Riku's hand to brace itself, the cat leaned in to whisper secretively, "and my name, lad, is Charybydeus."

“And mine is Riku.” He said in return, giving it a small, subdued smile. He turned to Kairi and looked at her seriously. “Ready to go?”

###  _Obtained Summon: Token of the Cat_  
 _Press X to Continue?_


	4. Mysterious Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Though Haggard's Kingdom is restored to the Realm of Light, Riku has questions about the creature he fought there.

"We're glad to see you come home," Mickey admitted, "You guys had me worried, going in there alone."

"Not just home, but they brought an entire world back from the realm of darkness," Master Yen Sid murmured, his hands steepled, fingers laced together in careful contemplation.

Riku and Kairi were standing in front of the Master’s desk, like children in front of their principal. And much like their former visits, Kairi was anxious — Riku appearing to be bored and disinterested while a turmoil raged inside his chest. All that was missing was Sora between them.

"But... but what was that— the creature we fought. Riku said it was- part of Sora? And Kingdom Hearts. And Sora, the one with the— the blade Xehanort was trying to forge. The one that could control Kingdom Hearts." Kairi asked frantically, fists clenched and leaning forward.

"The χ-blade," Yen Sid corrected. 

"But what about Sora?" Kairi insisted. "And if Sora was there, why didn't he come back with us to the realm of light?" She turned to stare at Riku, chewing her lip with worry and confusion.

"Not a great deal is known about that time, the records lost to time, and the keyblade war. Whatever was known was something the original masters kept to themselves, and when the Daybreak World fell, much of this knowledge was lost."

He tapped at a page laid out before him, the 'paper' like a sheer pane of metal; airy and engraved. "But this symbol you spoke of, _that_ I have found a record of. They were known as the Heartbroken, powerful creatures of light and dark." Yen Sid frowned. "Born at the Heart of the Keyblade War. Whether leading to, or caused by, but— they were the End of Times for the Keyblade Masters of Old."

Kairi's gaze travelled down to the symbol carefully etched into Yen Sid's strange record. "Then," she began weakly, "...Xehanort..." 

She tried to recall the explanation she had been given, but it had made so little sense to her; how could Xehanort have claimed the world was awash with darkness, when they had been fighting so hard to light it again, standing against him with their lives and hearts on the line.

"Yes," Yen Sid nodded, "It was the Heartbroken who would have displaced Xehanort from his home, and set him on the path to Darkness."

“And Sora has created... or become Heartbroken,” Riku said, breaking his silence. His voice was quiet and subdued and serious. He raised his head to look Yen Sid in the eye. “How do I save him?”

"The records do not say," Yen Sid slid the sheet across to Riku. "But there must be a way; this is the first time we have met the Heartbroken since the first Keyblade War. Now? In the wake of the second Keyblade War? That is no coincidence. The Keyblade Masters of Old found a way, once, and it can be found again."

"You and Kairi should journey to the Land of Departure, to see if Master Eraqus taught them anything of the Heartbroken, and I? I will continue my work here, searching for the answers in our pasts."

Kairi fidgeted, her fingers grasping at the hem of her dress, before she finally asked, "Master Yen Sid, did... the records say if they saved the Heartbroken, or if..." she left the thought unfinished, and Master Yen Sid's silence was answer enough that he did not know.

Riku took a step forward, determination steeling in his voice. “It doesn’t matter what they said. Sora was told he couldn’t bring you back either. And look what he did.” He held his chin high before bowing. “Thank you, Master. I have my GummiPhone if you discover more important information.”

At Riku's assertion, Kairi's face cleared, "Mm!" Her eyes gleamed fiercely, her chin high as well. "While you learn from our pasts, and we learn from the present, we can work towards a future! One the Masters before us never envisioned!"

_One with Sora in it._

Riku smiled proudly at Kairi’s declaration. She bowed, flushing a little at how blunt she had been with Master Yen Sid, but smiled back just as surely.

###  _Press X to Continue?_

They were greeted warmly, and immediately, Ven springing at Riku with a hug. It was a strangely forward greeting, and Ven seemed to realize this, pulling back to blink at him. Riku was surprised at the forwardness — from someone that looked so much like Roxas too. But he managed to hug him back, a little awkwardly, before he sprung away. "Ah, sorry Master Riku," Ven scruffed his own hair slightly, "Sometimes it feels like I already know you guys..."

Ventus paused, looking between them, and then back towards Aqua and Terra. "Master Yen Sid said you were looking for more information on the— the Unbroken?"

"Heartbroken," Aqua corrected, before gesturing them towards the castle. "Riku, Kairi, we may have found something. Not about the Heartbroken, but— it's hard to explain. I'd like to show you, if I may."

He nodded seriously to Aqua. “Lead the way.”

Ven had turned a rather definite shade of red, trailing after Riku and Aqua downright quietly. Kairi fell in step behind him, and tried to draw him out of his shell — Ven had never seemed like someone shy, but maybe it was strange to remember people who didn't know you?

Aqua led the way to a large library, but seemed to simply walk past each shelf, until she arrived at an ornate device, a series of golden orbs connected by loops of thin, airy gold. Filigree glittered about the edges of it, and up close, inscribed in each orb was a small symbol.

Within their hearts, their keyblades almost seemed to whisper, naming worlds as they examined each symbol: _the pride lands, corona, montressor, radiant garden._

"This is the Ephemeris," she explained, "A device for watching over the Realm of Light and the worlds therein; a tool of the old masters but..." Aqua spun one of the orbs with the flat of her finger, "It's been broken since I could remember. Master Eraqus said it would never spin again, and yet..."

Two orbs were spinning wildly, whipping by so fast the symbols on their surfaces were blurred shapes: on one, a spiral looped in a circle on one, and on the other, a peach blossom. 

"We were talking about going to these worlds to find out why," she smiled and held a hand out to Riku.

He hesitantly offered his hand back to Aqua, relatively sure she wasn’t about to throw him at the machine. Probably just touch one of the orbs. As it was pressed to a small decorative looking panel on the Ephemeris, an almost chime of light sounded; the burst so bright it had its own note; clear as crystal.

###  _New Locations Revealed: Motunui and The Valley of Peace_

"I can't help but just feel it has something to do with Sora," Ven admitted, still blushing, but speaking up insistently, "If it's wishful thinking, maybe, but— he kept me safe all this time. I have to do the same for him."

Riku nodded to Ven’s comment. “I understand. Sora means a lot to everyone, but you’ve been with him so long. Why don’t you come with me to explore one of these worlds?” 

Ven's eyes widened slightly, seemingly a bit offguard by Riku's offer. Still he nodded, "But..." He looked between the two orbs hesitantly, "But which one...?"

“Let’s go to this one,” he said, pointing to the orb with the looping spiral. “Something about that symbol. It feels familiar, somehow. Like I’ve seen it somewhere before.” Like a memory from a dream. “If it’s familiar to me… maybe it’s familiar to Sora too.”

Ven and Kairi gave a firm nod, the three of them in agreement. “Then we go together.”

###  _Press X to Continue?_


End file.
